After several months of work with the participation of experts from various disciplines, from pedagogy to philosophy, from law to didactics, the Congregation for Catholic Education has prepared a document to offer some guidelines on the "gender issue" in the educational field, titled Male and female he created them.
The text shows all the topicality of the subject matter, and is not only addressed to Catholic educational institutions, but also wants to enter "in dialogue" also with all the realities that deal with the formation of young people. However, it reiterates the difference and the natural reciprocity of man and woman as the anthropological basis of the family.
In an interview with Palabra, the Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, offers some clues for understanding the orientations, also framing the reasons for the dialogue with modern culture.
-Excellency, what does the Congregation expect from this document?
The document is in line with a whole series of orientations that have been published by the Congregation for Catholic Education since the Second Vatican Council up to the present day, with the aim of offering insights and guidelines for education. The reflection of this document is placed in the broader horizon of a general "educational emergency", which arises from a society that increasingly lacks shared values and is subjected to new challenges. This cultural aspect already seems to involve both young people in training and the adults who have educational responsibility. This emergence denotes - to use the words of Benedict XVI - an authentic "anthropological deficiency"which tends to make us forget that the human person "is an integral being and not a sum of elements that can be isolated and manipulated as one pleases".. The Congregation hopes that this document can help to address the complex issue of gender in education.
-Why are you leaving at this very moment?
In the last decade the bishops have shown increasing attention to the so-called "gender question", sending petitions to the Congregation for Catholic Education concerning the many Catholic schools and universities. During the work of the plenary assembly of the Congregation, held in February 2017, the irruption of the gender ideology The decision was made to intervene with a paper on this delicate subject to help those who appreciate Catholic education.
In this regard, a work agenda has been determined with the collaboration of experts in various disciplines (pedagogy, educational sciences, philosophy, law, didactics, etc.)....) with a view to drawing up a draft of the text, in which some reflections and guidelines could be shared that, while starting from the substance of the debate on human sexuality, would indicate mainly the intervention method of those involved in the education of the new generations. In this way, the aim is to overcome any inconclusive polemical opposition.
-In the text you point out some critical points on the gender issue. Why do you consider it important to do so?
In the face of a deep crisis of affectivity that determines the "anthropological disorientation that broadly characterizes the cultural climate of our time". (n. 1), the document invites us to assume an attitude of listening, from reflection and of proposal. In this context, it was necessary to present a brief historical itinerary to reconstruct the course of the tendencies aimed at canceling the differences between men and women, which are considered as simple effects of a historical-cultural conditioning. The "gender ideology", in effect "denies the difference and the natural reciprocity of man and woman. It presents a society without sex differences, and empties the anthropological foundation of the family."as Pope Francis also explains in Amoris laetitia. This ideology, in effect, "leads to educational projects and legislative guidelines that promote a personal identity and affective intimacy radically detached from the biological diversity between men and women."the Pope continues. Thus, "human identity is determined by an individualistic choice, which also changes over time". Therefore, even if the critical points are traced in an essential way, it is important for the recovery of an integral anthropology that serves as the foundation of a complete education.
-One of the key words is dialogue with modern culture. How do you reconcile this with the identity of Catholic education?
We cannot deny some elements that can reasonably be shared, connected to the theme: from the fight against all unjust discrimination to the equal dignity of men and women, from the respect for every peculiar condition of people to the defense against forms of violence and marginalization based on sexual orientation, from the role and value of femininity to the cordial recognition of forms of affective, cultural and spiritual motherhood.
The Church looks to the "gender issue in educationThe "social coexistence" in the broadest perspective of the common commitment to build a social coexistence that, as the Council already wished, increasingly "respect the dignity, freedom and rights of people".. And it is precisely in this perspective of this common commitment that the Church wishes not only to open a path of dialogue, but also to open a space for dialogue with cultural, social and political institutions, and with all people, including those who do not share the Christian faith, but who do not share it. "cultivate the enlightened goods of the human spirit."as indicated by Gaudium et Spes.
-Aren't you taking risks by assuming this "dialogic" attitude?
The Church participates in this dialogue with the conviction that each interlocutor has something good to say and that, therefore, it is necessary to make room for his point of view, his opinion, his proposals, without falling into relativism. But dialogue does not mean losing one's own identity. Dialogue is listening, but it is also a proposal. For this reason, the document does not avoid the presentation of Christian anthropology. This is why it connects with the preceding text Educational guidelines on human love, published by the Congregation in 1983. In it, the following is once again proposed the Christian anthropological vision which sees in sexuality a substantial component of the personality, a way of being, of manifesting oneself, of communicating with others, of feeling, of expressing and living human love. Therefore, it is an integral part of the development of the personality and of its educational process. In another document of the Congregation, Human person 1975, we also read that "To the truth in the sex lie the characteristic notes that constitute people as men and women on the biological, psychological and spiritual level, thus having much part in their individual evolution and in their insertion in society".
-Is a verification of the reception of these indications in the ecclesial community foreseen in the short and long term?
Of course. As we read in point 7, the text is entrusted to those who appreciate education, in particular to the educational communities of Catholic schools and to those who, animated by the Christian vision of life, operate in other schools, to parents, students, leaders and staff, as well as to bishops, religious institutes, movements, associations of the faithful and other organizations in the sector.
A common requirement in the current formative challenge is to rebuild a new "educational alliance between family, school and society". (n. 44) which - as Pope Francis has repeated several times and is already widely recognized - has entered into crisis: "A substantial and non-bureaucratic alliance, which harmonizes, in the shared project of a positive and prudent sex education, the primary responsibility of parents with the task of teachers." (n. 45).
The Congregation for Catholic Education, within the scope of its competence, is in constant contact with the bishops and religious orders with an educational charism, as well as with international organizations in the sector. It also promotes specific meetings, such as world congresses and other thematic conferences at the continental level. Undoubtedly, in the context of these relationships, there will be checks on the reception of the document.
